In a typical DBS receiving system, the received signal, which is in the 12 GHz range, is first amplified by a low-noise amplifier and converted to the 1 GHz range. Both amplifier and converter are located outdoors, close to the antenna, so as to maintain the signal to noise ratio as high as possible. Typically, the converted 1 GHz signal is fed to a converter unit, generally placed on a television (TV) receiver cabinet and known as a "set top converter". This converter unit provides video and sound outputs which are then applied to corresponding inputs on the TV receiver or it may provide a modulated radio frequency (RF) output which can be received by the TV receiver on an unused channel frequency. In effect, the set top converter is a special purpose television receiver and generally includes a tuner and other necessary TV receiver circuitry, other than the picture display tube and its associated driver and deflection circuitry. A receiver for satellite transmissions is described in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,538,175 in the name of Balbes et al.